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Thursday, June 21, 2012

WBO concludes Manny Pacquiao topped Timothy Bradley

Five independent judges hired by the World Boxing Organization became the latest to conclude that Manny Pacquiao defeated Timothy Bradley when they fought for the welterweight title on June 9 in Las Vegas.

WBO president Francisco "Paco" Valcarcel announced on June 13 he would have a panel of what he called "five international judges" review the scoring of the highly controversial bout. Bradley won a split decision and ended Pacquiao's seven-year winning streak in a result that outraged the sporting world. Even Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he thought Pacquiao won the fight.

Judges Duane Ford and C.J. Ross each scored the bout 115-113 for Bradley, while Jerry Roth saw it 115-113 for Pacquiao. Ford, ironically, is a longtime close friend of Reid's.

The outrage at the call was so great that less than 24 hours after the bout concluded, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told Yahoo! Sports he would ask Nevada attorney general Catherine Cortez Masto to investigate the fight. Cortez Masto's office would not confirm nor deny whether an investigation is ongoing, but Arum told Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday that Cortez Masto's chief investigator and the deputy spoke to him in his Las Vegas office.

"I told them they need to interrogate me, they need to interrogate Todd [duBoef, the Top Rank president] and all the people in my office," Arum said. "They have to ask hard questions."
Arum wants the investigation because the public and many boxing web sites have accused him of fixing the fight and having a hand in the judging. Ford told Yahoo! Sports on June 10 that he scored the fight as he saw it and said he felt Bradley gave Pacquiao "a boxing lesson" in the second half of the fight.